> Then he saw the bananas. He really wanted bananas. My friend's high school physics teacher had many memorable lines, one of them being: "Bananas! I saw my f

> Then he saw the bananas. He really wanted bananas. My friend's high school physics teacher had many memorable lines, one of them being: "Bananas! I saw my first banana when I was already in college!" My father hosted a few Americans in (back then) communist Poland. To them it was like time travel to some bizarro world bygone era. They really wanted to drive his car, which was also a "classic" tech and design wise. Anyway all this spilled over to the 90s, making the weirdest things to be considered premium goods, like Vans shoes, vacation in Malta/Greece or McDonald's. Eventually this all ended and I remember the exact moment I realized it: I saw a somewhat overweight teenager in a mall holding a pizza slice. Every part of this sight would be out of place in the mid 90s, not to mention the previous system.